The Man Who Saved the Union

by H. W. Brands

  The Ulysses S. Grant Papers at the Library of Congress cover much of the same ground as the published collection, especially for the years of Grant’s presidency. To an even greater degree than the published Grant papers, this collection includes incoming and collateral correspondence. References to this collection are given as “Grant Papers, Library of Congress.”

  Grant’s Memoirs are another essential source. Widely considered the finest autobiographical work by any president, they merit this distinction in part by avoiding the presidency. The memoirs recount Grant’s early life and especially his service in the Union army during the Civil War. The memoirs convey the authority of command and indeed echo the clear, direct prose of his wartime orders. They gain additional credibility from the unusual circumstances of their composition, during Grant’s final months of life, when he knew he was dying of cancer. The edition cited in the present work is the one published by the Library of America in 1990.

  Any account of the military campaigns of the Civil War must depend heavily on the mammoth collection of orders and reports published by the War Department in seventy volumes between 1880 and 1901 as The War of the Rebellion: The Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies. The collection is unwieldy, as the user often has to jump between series and volumes to follow a given campaign, but it is invaluable. It is cited here as Official Records.

  The letters and papers of Abraham Lincoln shed great light on Grant’s relations with his commander in chief, as well as on the broader aspects of Lincoln’s policies during the Civil War. The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln is the published version; the Abraham Lincoln Papers at the Library of Congress are the unpublished counterpart.

  Very many of the military officers and civilian officials active during Grant’s lifetime published memoirs. Several of these are cited in the notes below; the most important and revealing by one of Grant’s fellow officers is William T. Sherman’s. The Library of America edition of Sherman’s memoir, published in 1990, is the one cited here. Many of these same officers and officials left collections of papers; the most important repository is the Library of Congress.

  The Personal Memoirs of Julia Dent Grant occupy a special category. They convey aspects of Grant family life unavailable in other sources, as well as Julia Grant’s occasional comments on the politics of the army and the presidency.

  Digital archives have become indispensable to historians and biographers. One devoted to Grant, the Ulysses S. Grant Homepage (granthomepage.com), includes transcripts of interviews of individuals who knew Grant, as well as clippings from nineteenth-century newspapers. The best digital archive of the American presidency is the American Presidency Project (presidency.ucsb.edu), which includes the public papers of Grant and every other president. This collection is cited as “Public Papers.”

  The secondary literature pertaining to Grant’s life and career is much too large to summarize in even a cursory fashion. Substantially more than a hundred biographies of Grant have been published; significant studies of the Civil War number in the tens of thousands. Many of these have been cited in the notes below, but absence from the notes does not imply lack of importance. This said, special mention should be made of a small number of works: William S. McFeely, Grant (1981); Brooks D. Simpson, Let Us Have Peace: Ulysses S. Grant and the Politics of War and Reconstruction, 1861–1868 (1991), and Ulysses S. Grant: Triumph over Adversity, 1822–1865 (2000); Geoffrey Perret, Ulysses S. Grant: Soldier and President (1997); Jean Edward Smith, Grant (2001); and Charles Bracelen Flood, Grant and Sherman: The Friendship That Won the Civil War (2005).

  NOTES

  PART ONE: PROUD WALLS

  CHAPTER 1

  “I was not studious”: Ulysses S. Grant, Memoirs and Selected Letters (Library of America, 1990), 21.

  “He was always a steady, serious sort of boy”: Hannah Simpson Grant interview, New York Graphic, Sept. 16, 1879, granthomepage.com.

  “He would rather do anything else … the bridle reins”: Jesse Root Grant interview, Ulysses S. Grant Association Newsletter, Oct. 1970 and Jan. 1971, granthomepage.com.

  “Papa says … from the peculiarity”: Memoirs, 22-27.

  “Ulysses, I believe … had been reached”: Memoirs, 28-31.

  “I slept for two months”: to R. McKinstry Griffith, Sept. 22, 1839.

  “When the 28th of August came”: Memoirs, 31.

  “We have tremendous long…‘or an animal?’ ”: to Griffith, Sept. 22, 1839.

  “With his commanding figure”: Memoirs, 33.

  “There is much to dislike”: to Griffith, Sept. 22, 1839.

  “I saw in this”: Memoirs, 32.

  “A clean-faced, slender, blue-eyed young fellow”: James Fry interview (unattributed), granthomepage.com.

  “While I was riding … appreciate it so highly”: Memoirs, 35.

  CHAPTER 2

  “an exceedingly fine looking young man”: Mary Robinson interview, St. Louis Republican, July 24, 1885, granthomepage.com.

  “I looked at it a moment”: Memoirs, 38-39.

  “Old man Dent was opposed to him”: Mary Robinson interview.

  “The country is low … through in streams”: to Julia Dent, June 4, 1844.

  “Our orders”: to Julia Dent, July 6, 1845.

  “I have waited so long”: to Julia Dent, Aug. 31, 1844.

  “Julia, can we hope”: to Julia Dent, Jan. 12, 1845.

  “San Antonio has the appearance”: to Julia Dent, Jan. 2, 1846.

  “Benjamin and I”: Memoirs, 55.

  “Our national birth … multiplying millions”: Edward L. Widmer, Young America (2000), 43; Thomas R. Hietala, Manifest Design (2003), 255.

  CHAPTER 3

  “Everyone rejoices … engraved in it”: to Julia Dent, March 3, 1846.

  “The country was a rolling prairie”: Memoirs, 61-62.

  “A parley took place … intimidate our troops”: to Julia Dent, March 29, 1846.

  “We marched nearly all night”: to Julia Dent, May 3, 1846.

  “A young second-lieutenant”: Memoirs, 65.

  “Our wagons were immediately parked … sergeant down besides”: to Julia Dent, May 11, 1846; Memoirs, 66.

  “It was a terrible sight”: to Julia Dent, May 11, 1846.

  “an honor and responsibility … when in anticipation”: Memoirs, 68-69; to Julia Dent, May 11, 1846.

  CHAPTER 4

  “After reiterated menaces”: Polk message to Congress, May 11, 1846.

  “Fortune, which has showered … a soldier’s life”: Democracy in America, ed. J. P. Mayer (1969), 646, 651.

  “Matamoros contains probably”: to John Lowe, June 26, 1846.

  “Low with a flat or thatched roof”: to Julia Dent, June 10, 1846.

  “The whole country is low and flat”: to Julia Dent, July 2, 1846.

  “General Taylor never made any great show … or physical courage”: Memoirs, 69-71.

  “When we left Matamoros”: to Julia Dent, Aug. 14, 1846.

  “About one in five is sick”: to Julia Dent, Sept. 6, 1846.

  “but some fifteen hundred”: John S. D. Eisenhower, So Far from God: The U.S. War with Mexico, 1846-1848 (1989), 110.

  “I respectfully protest”: to Bvt. Col. John Garland, undated (Aug. 1846).

  “The tents and cooking utensils”: Memoirs, 72-73.

  “Monterrey is a beautiful city”: to Julia Dent, Oct. 3, 1846.

  “My curiosity got the better…‘what it was all about’ ”: Memoirs, 76-82.

  CHAPTER 5

  “I have found in Lieutenant Grant”: John W. Emerson, “Grant’s Life in the West and His Mississippi Valley Campaigns,” Midland Monthly Magazine (1897), 34.

  “He died as a soldier dies”: to Mrs. Thomas L. Hamer, undated (Dec. 1846).

  “Hamer was one of the ablest men”: Memoirs, 71.

  “He is evidently a weak man”: The Diary of James K. Polk during His Presidency, 1845 to 1849 (1910), 2:249-50.

  “Here we are”: t
o unknown addressee, undated (Dec. 1846), Emerson, “Grant’s Life in the West,” 139-40.

  “I was bitterly opposed”: Memoirs, 41.

  “I begin to think”: to Julia Dent, Feb. 1, 1847.

  “As soon as Gen. Scott”: to Julia Dent, Feb. 1, 1847.

  “A great part of the time”: to Julia Dent, Feb. 25, 1847.

  “Why, the thing looks”: Memoirs, 86.

  “The city is a solid, compact place”: to Julia Dent, April 3, 1847.

  “From Vera Cruz to this place”: to Julia Dent, April 24, 1847.

  “I must and will accompany my regiment”: to unrecorded recipient, undated (April 1847).

  “Lieutenant Grant is informed”: from John Garland, undated (appended to Grant’s request of April 1847, just above).

  “Perhaps there was not a battle”: Memoirs, 91.

  “It was war pyrotechnics”: to unidentified recipient, April 24, 1846.

  “As soon as the Mexicans … without resistance”: to John Lowe, May 3, 1846.

  CHAPTER 6

  “It surpasses St. Louis … resign or not”: to Julia Dent, May 17, 1847.

  “I happened to notice … without further loss”: Memoirs, 103-04.

  “When I knocked for admission”: Memoirs, 106-09.

  “most nobly”: Walter Allen, Ulysses S. Grant (1901), 31.

  “Mexico is one of the most beautiful cities”: to Julia Dent, Sept. 1847.

  “From my map…ignorance of the situation”: to unknown addressee, undated (Sept. 12, 1847).

  “The battles of Molino del Rey and Chapultepec”: Memoirs, 104.

  “that things are seen plainer”: Memoirs, 113.

  “The contrast between the two … pleasant to serve with”: Memoirs, 94-95.

  “Everything looks as if peace”: to Julia Dent, Sept. 1847.

  “If the treaty in its present form is ratified”: Diary of Polk, Feb. 28, 1848, 3:366.

  “not wishing to leave”: Memoirs, 119.

  “The day that we arrived … where they were”: to Julia Dent, May 7, 1848; Memoirs, 123-28.

  “I have no doubt”: to Julia Dent, May 22, 1848.

  CHAPTER 7

  “I remember one day”: Memoirs of General W. T. Sherman (1990 ed.), 64.

  “At the Academy”: Memoirs of Sherman, 16.

  “I asked their business”: Memoirs of Sherman, 64-65.

  “Stories reached us”: Memoirs of Sherman, 70, 78.

  “The most moderate estimate”: H. W. Brands, The Age of Gold (2002), 45-46.

  “The accounts of the abundance”: Polk annual message, Dec. 5, 1848, Public Papers.

  “If he cannot or will not do this”: Works of Lincoln, 1:439.

  “No man was governed by higher or purer motives”: Brands, Age of Gold, 304.

  “I had had four years”: Personal Memoirs of Julia Dent Grant, 55.

  “How I marveled … I was well satisfied”: Ibid., 56-57.

  “Two years were spent”: Memoirs, 130.

  “A little frame house … a slicked bullet”: James E. Pitman interview, William Conant Church Papers, Library of Congress, granthomepage.com.

  “Sackets Harbor is as dull a little hole”: to Julia Dent Grant, Aug. 31, 1851.

  “Take good care of little Fred”: to Julia Dent Grant, June 29, 1851.

  “It distresses me, dearest”: to Julia Dent Grant, undated (July 5, 1852).

  “I was very much disappointed”: to Julia Dent Grant, July 1, 1852.

  “Mr. Clay’s death”: to Julia Dent Grant, July 4, 1852.

  “The streets of the town”: Memoirs, 131-33.

  “My dearest”: to Julia Dent Grant, Aug. 9, 1852.

  CHAPTER 8

  “I consider that city”: to Julia Dent Grant, Sept. 19, 1852.

  “Often broken places were found”: Memoirs, 139.

  “During my year on the Columbia River”: Memoirs, 138.

  “Everyone speaks well … within the year”: to Julia Dent Grant, Sept. 19 and Oct. 7, 1852.

  “I have been up to the Dalles”: to Julia Dent Grant, Oct. 26, 1852.

  “About pecuniary matters, dear Julia”: to Julia Dent Grant, Dec. 3, 1852.

  “The snow is now some ten inches”: to Julia Dent Grant, Dec. 19, 1852.

  “Captain Ingalls and myself”: to Julia Dent Grant, Jan. 3, 1853.

  “The climate of Oregon”: to Julia Dent Grant, Jan. 29, 1853.

  “I am farming extensively”: to Julia Dent Grant, March 4 and 19, 1853.

  “I have my health perfectly … bring you with me”: to Julia Dent Grant, Oct. 26 and Dec. 19, 1852, and Jan. 29, 1853.

  “The Columbia is now far over its banks … the commission way!”: to Julia Dent Grant, June 28, 1853.

  “I have purchased for them”: to Julia Dent Grant, June 28, 1853.

  “Besides the gambling in cards”: Memoirs, 139-40.

  “I cannot say much in favor of the place”: to Julia Dent Grant, Jan. 18, 1854.

  “I do nothing here … with his Grandpa”: to Julia Dent Grant, Feb. 2, 1854.

  “I have not been a hundred yards … necessities of life”: to Julia Dent Grant, March 6 and 25, 1854.

  “There is but one thing to console”: to Julia Dent Grant, Feb. 6, 1854.

  “There was not a day passed”: General George Crook: His Autobiography, ed. Martin F. Schmitt (1986), 7.

  “One glass would show … preferred against him”: Charles G. Ellington, The Trial of U. S. Grant: The Pacific Coast Years, 1852-1854 (1987), 167.

  “Grant’s friends at the time … on such a charge”: Hamlin Garland, Ulysses S. Grant (1898), 127.

  “I very respectfully tender”: to Col. S. Cooper, April 11, 1854.

  CHAPTER 9

  “sink in hell”: David M. Potter, The Impending Crisis, 1848-1861 (1976), 155.

  “It will raise a hell of a storm”: Potter, Impending Crisis, 160.

  “Do you suppose”: Congressional Globe, 33:1:337-38.

  “I adjure you”: Congressional Globe, 33:1:342.

  “a gross violation”: Potter, Impending Crisis, 163.

  “a terrible outrage … forever continue free”: James M. McPherson, Battle Cry of Freedom (1988), 124.

  “whip and spur”: Potter, Impending Crisis, 166.

  “I would be much gratified”: Jesse Grant to Jefferson Davis, June 21, 1854, Papers of Grant, 1:330n.

  “I have to inform you”: Davis to Jesse Grant, June 28, 1854, Papers of Grant, 1:331n.

  “Grant landed in New York in 1854”: Simon Bolivar Buckner interview, Hamlin Garland Papers, Doheny Library, University of Southern California, granthomepage.com.

  “West Point spoiled one of my boys”: Hamlin Garland, Ulysses S. Grant (1898), 129.

  “Mamma, is that ugly man my papa?”: Garland, Grant, 74.

  “How very happy”: Garland, Grant, 75.

  “I worked very hard”: Memoirs, 141.

  “I cannot imagine … call it Hardscrabble”: Personal Memoirs of Julia Dent Grant, 78-79.

  “I feel as if the Mission”: Stephens to Robert Burch, June 15, 1854, American Historical Review, vol. 8 (1902-03), 92-96.

  “I remember he impressed me”: Paul M. Angle, ed., The Lincoln Reader (2005), 202-03.

  “I pledge myself … destruction of slavery”: Evan Carton, Patriotic Treason: John Brown and the Soul of America (2006), 82.

  “Bleeding Kansas … abandon the Territory”: Potter, Impending Crisis, 220; New York Times, May 30, 1856.

  “The late civil war in Kansas”: Dale E. Watts, “How Bloody Was Bleeding Kansas?” Kansas History, Summer 1995, 123.

  “Crime Against Kansas … the harlot, slavery”: George H. Haynes, Charles Sumner (1909), 195.

  CHAPTER 10

  “Every day I like farming better … advantage to me”: to Jesse Grant, Dec. 28, 1856.

  “Spring is now approaching … no more from you”: to Jesse Grant, Feb. 7, 1857.

  “I have seen many farmers”: Mary Robinson interview, St. Louis Republ
ican, July 24, 1885, granthomepage.com.

  “My hard work is now over”: to Mary Grant, Aug. 22, 1857.

  “He was not a hand to manage Negroes”: Louisa Boggs interview with Hamlin Garland, 1896, Hamlin Garland Papers, Doheny Library, University of Southern California, granthomepage.com.

  “He was like a man thinking”: Hamlin Garland, Ulysses S. Grant (1898), 139.

  “I suppose I was the Jonah”: Lloyd Lewis, Sherman (1932), 123.

  “West Point and the Regular Army”: Lewis, Sherman, 97.

  CHAPTER 11

  “We gave him an unfurnished back room”: Louisa Boggs interview (unattributed), granthomepage.com.

  “We are living now … additional commissions”: to Jesse Grant, March 12, 1859.

  “With four children”: to Jesse Grant, March 12, 1859.

  “You are the homeliest man”: Recollected Words of Abraham Lincoln, ed. Don E. Fehrenbacher and Virginia Fehrenbacher (1996), 401-02.

  “Liberty and Union”: Works of Lincoln, 2:341.

  “A house divided against itself cannot stand”: Works of Lincoln, 2:461-62.

  “Henry Clay once said”: Works of Lincoln, 3:29.

  “It was a hard situation for him”: Louisa Boggs interview, Hamlin Garland Papers, Doheny Library, University of Southern California, granthomepage.com.

  “He seemed to me to be much depressed”: Louisa Boggs interview.

  “It was evident to my mind”: Memoirs, 143.